Shenkman Sentenced To 70 Years In Prison

January 04, 2012|By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

HARTFORD — — Handcuffed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit at his sentencing Wednesday, Richard Shenkman tried to once again assert control of the proceedings and those involved.

In a rambling statement to Judge Julia Dewey, who sentenced him to 70 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-wife Nancy Tyler and torching the home they once shared after a standoff with police, Shenkman claimed he was a prisoner of war and told a bizarre tale of hiring an "assassin" to kill Tyler.

"I feel it's a waste of time for me to rot in a cage for the rest of my life without a purpose," he declared. "Killing Nancy Tyler gives me that purpose. Ending Nancy's life while I'm in prison makes the sentence worthwhile."

The courtroom was silent as Shenkman, a former public relations and advertising executive, read from the sheets of paper on which he'd written his threats.

But the courtroom burst into laughter a moment later when defense attorney Hugh Keefe rose and told Dewey: "I renew my motion for a psychiatric evaluation." It was denied.

Asserting control — controlling his ex-wife, controlling business associates, controlling the police who surrounded his house July 7, 2009 — was the constant theme of the trial this fall where jurors rejected his claim of mental illness and found him guilty of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree arson, third-degree assault, possession of a pistol without a permit, violating a protective order, attempted assault on a police officer, interfering with police, first-degree threatening and two counts of second-degree threatening.

Prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre, who described Shenkman as "pathetic," said the threats were a final effort to control Tyler. "This was his last opportunity to terrorize her and he took advantage of it," she said.

Tyler, as she left the courthouse with her son, Peter, and daughter, Victoria, appeared to shrug off the threat.

"I am very relieved and plan to get back to my life with my family and friends in safety," she said. The threats from Shenkman were expected, she said. "It was pretty much what I've been living with the last five or six years."

Shenkman tried to assert control over the judge, calling the judge "helpless" to prevent his hired assassin from killing Tyler. Dewey sat impassively as Shenkman boasted that he would orchestrate Tyler's killing and said, "No one in a black robe playing God with my life is going to stop me from having Nancy Tyler killed."

Prosecutors, police and others "misled her into believing she would be safe from me," Shenkman said, describing himself as "dangerous, ruthless [and] vindictive."

Then it was Dewey's turn to speak.

"What you don't do in this court is … determine what the rule of law is," Dewey told Shenkman. "The citizens of Connecticut already determined that. You might disagree with them, you might think you're some sort of comic book hero, but you're not."

Everything Shenkman did since his wife filed for divorce was to destroy and humiliate her, the judge said.

"I don't know if you ever loved Nancy Tyler," the judge said. "You certainly wanted to control her and you certainly wanted to dictate everything she could do. You wanted to possess her."

And then she turned her attention to the events of July 7, 2009, which she called "planned and calculated."

Shenkman kidnapped his former wife from a Hartford parking garage, forced her to drive them to the home they once shared at 96 Tumblebrook Drive in South Windsor, handcuffed Tyler to himself and threatened to kill her several times. About 10 hours into the ordeal, Tyler escaped. A short time later Shenkman set the house on fire. He emerged hours later and was taken into custody.

"You chose an extraordinary course of action," Dewey told Shenkman, who leaned back in his chair at the defense table. "A media event couldn't have been better planned or better staged. You were the center of that media event. You garnered the maximum amount of media coverage that you could at that event, then you attempted to dictate every moment and every movement during that day. Your desire to control everything was just so patent, even then."

Shenkman cannot be rehabilitated and will spend the rest of his days trying to harass Tyler, the judge said. He had to be contained, the judge said.

Shenkman interrupted the judge several times, and she asked Keefe to remind his client to be quiet. Keefe turned to Shenkman and said, "Shut up."

Before the sentencing, Keefe had urged Dewey to order a competency hearing for Shenkman. He argued that Shenkman did not help prepare for the sentencing and said that Shenkman refused to share with him the contents of the statement he read in court Wednesday.

The threats were "further evidence that Richard is definitely off the reservation," Keefe said. "He needs psychiatric help desperately."

Since his conviction in October, Keefe argued, Shenkman's mental health has deteriorated.

Keefe also said Dewey's sentence was "ridiculously stiff" and he believed the judge committed several errors during the trial and that there would be an appeal.

With his 70-year sentence, Shenkman, 62, could be eligible for parole when he is in his 90s.

The judge also ordered Shenkman to pay $35,000 for costs associated with the police response to the standoff, and $100,000 to Tyler for destruction of her house. Shenkman laughed at the judge's order.